Parental Investments and Intra-household Inequality in Child Human Capital
Evidence from a Survey Experiment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9719332 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michele Giannola (0009-0008-6383-9977, University of Naples Federico II, Center for Studies in Economics Finance , Italy & Institute for Fiscal Studies, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 134 |
| Issue | 658 |
| Pages | 671-727 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ej/uead086 |
| OpenAlex | W4387425989 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 69 |
Intra-household inequality explains 40% of child human capital variation in the developing world. I study how parents’ investment contributes to this inequality. To mitigate the identification problem posed by observational data, I design a survey experiment with parents in India that allows me to identify beliefs about the human capital production function, preferences for inequality in outcomes and the role of resources. I find that investments are driven by efficiency considerations: as parents perceive investment and ability as complements, they invest more in higher-achieving children and more so when constrained. Simulations indicate that interventions have intra-household distributional impacts through parental responses
Capital (architecture · Demographic economics · Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Human capital · Inequality · Investment (military · Labour economics · Microeconomics · Observational study · Political science · Production (economics · Psychological intervention · Public economics · Survey data collection · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology
Chapter 4 Intrahousehold distribution and the family
Fetal Origins and Parental Responses
The Formation of Beliefs
Children's Resources in Collective Households
Preference for the Workplace, Investment in Human Capital, and Gender
Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements
Testing the Quantity-Quality Fertility Model
Measuring Expectations
Mortality Reductions, Educational Attainment, and Fertility Choice
The economic consequences of reproductive health and family planning
The (Perceived) Returns to Education and the Demand for Schooling
The analysis of household surveys
Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India
Measuring Inequality
Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference
Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes
Parental Allocations to Children
Nutrition, health, birth order and seasonality
Nutrition, information and household behavior
Is Biology Destiny? Birth Weight and Differential Parental Treatment
Son preference and sex composition of children
A formal theory for male-preferring stopping rules of childbearing
Child Endowments and the Quantity and Quality of Children
Long-Term-Care Utility and Late-in-Life Saving
University Choice
Comparison of Decisions under Unknown Experiments
Parental Preferences and Provision for Progeny
Estimating a Household Production Function
Bride Price and Female Education
On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children
Early Health Shocks, Intra-Household Resource Allocation and Child Outcomes
How Serious is the Neglect of Intra-Household Inequality
The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education
The Economics of Slums in the Developing World
On Kinship Structure, Female Autonomy, and Demographic Behavior in India
Contingent Valuation
Subjective expectations in the context of HIV/Aids in Malawi
| Citations per year | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |